On Saturday morning last, the inhabitants of the three
towns were astounded and shocked by the intelligence
that the barque John, of this port, Rawle, master,
which had only left Plymouth Sound on Thursday
afternoon, had struck on the Manacles Rock, off St.
Keverne, on the coast of Cornwall, and that upwards of
one hundred and ninety of her passengers had been
drowned. The intelligence at first appeared to be too
frightful to be credited; but it was soon ascertained
that the statement was only too true, and that one of
the most deplorable shipwrecks that had ever taken
place on the western close had occurred.

The John was bound for Quebec, and when she left the
Sound about four o'clock on Thursday afternoon, who
had on board 154 adult passengers, 98 children, and 16
infants, together in a crew in all of 19, making the
total of souls on board 287. The passengers principally
from the North of Devon, the great source of American
emigration in the West of England, numbers from other
parts of this country and the remainder from the
counties of Cornwall, Dorset and Somerset, - in fact,
she was considered what is termed a West Country ship.

Many of the friends accompanied the unfortunate
passengers to this port to bid them farewell, and as
the vessel left the Sound relatives might be seen here
and there on the Hoe, gazing after her with painful
interest, or shedding tears at the separation between
them and those they loved dearly - a separation which,
as the sequel proved, was, in many instances a fatal
one. Others put on a bolder front, and sought to infuse
some of their own spirits into their friends on board
by hearty cheers in which they were joined by some of
the spectators, who happened to be present.

The ship left at the top of the ebb tide with a
favourable wind off the land, and all bid her fare for
a prosperous voyage down channel. How their hopes were
blighted, it would be impossible to say, so varied are
the accounts of those who have been spared to tell the
catastrophe. This much, however, we may state that all
accounts agree in condemning the captain, who, it is
said, had no business to be so close in shore, and who,
notwithstanding that he was warned of the danger,
stupidly persisted in keeping the vessel in the same
course.

So embittered were the survivors towards him that it is
stated the Coast Guard were obliged to protect him from
their fury. But whether this anger arose from a belief
that the accident was the result of inattention on his
part - or that the captain and crew saved themselves,
as stated, to the sacrifice of the passengers - or, in
fact, what gave rise to this angry feeling at all, it
would be wrong to say until evidence shall be taken as
it is easy to imagine that the survivors, many of whom
have sustained the loss of their dearest relatives,
whilst nearly all have lost the whole of their wealth
the possessed, would be embittered, and give vent to
their feelings against one to whom they had entrusted
their life and property.

The scene after the vessel struck, as may be
anticipated, was most distressing, the utmost confusion
prevailed, and most of those on board gave themselves
up in despair. The account rendered by one of the
passengers is most heart-rending, thought the character
of all similar disasters, except that human sympathy
was in this case the more excited from the number of
children on board, and from the extraordinary efforts
of their parents to save them from the death impending.

One of the passengers, William Walters, a man
apparently of sickly and delicate constitution,
succeeded as the vessel settled in the water, in taking
his wife and six children into the rigging one by one -
the youngest, unfortunately, fell from the mother's
arms into the sea; the father, though unable to swim,
plunged after it, but failed in his noble effort to
save his child, and, with difficulty, regained the
ship.

Another, Wm. Clemence, who had a wife and eight
children on board, attempted to raise the six youngest
of them into the rigging by the aid of a
"sheet", with which he had tied them
together. Unfortunately, he failed in his efforts, and
four were drowned. Samuel Rogers, a boy aged fifteen,
one of the other passengers saved, has lost his father,
mother, two brothers, a sister, and a cousin. Henry
North, saved, lost his wife and three children.

So far as the facts can be gleaned from the parties on
board, it appears that all went prosperously till about
half past nine, when they made the Falmouth light, the
captain himself pointing it out to one of the
passengers on deck. Just at this time the second mate
was trying to sight the Lizard light, and he asked some
of the passengers if they could not see the reflection
of the light in the sky; they replied they could not,
when the captain said he could not either, but they
would see it fast enough when they got there. It was
the second-mate's watch, and the captain shortly
after went below. About ten o'clock the mate came
on the poop and asked the passengers if they had seen
the captain, and on being asked what he wanted the
captain for, he said he (the mate) thought they were a
deal too nigh the land. Shortly after this the captain
came on deck, and what the mate had stated, "that
they were getting too close on land," was reported
to him; the captain "pooh-poohed" the report.

Soon afterward someone forward sung out
"rocks," and almost immediately the vessel
struck with violence, so much so that she bumped over
the rock and then struck, with still greater force upon
rocks further in; the captain was then distinctly heard
to call out "run her aground". The vessel
then had all sail on her with great way, as she was
when the accident happened going eight or nine knots,
and though ran aground, the sea washed off her again,
and she ran down the coast for some distance.

An attempt was then made to bring her up by letting go
an anchor, when she grounded heavily broadside on.
Attention was then directed to the boats - of which she
had four on board, three on deck and one over the side
- the captain, four seamen, a boy and one passenger,
jumped into the latter boat and called out to lower,
but finding no one answered the call, the captain
returned to the deck of the vessel, when the boat was
lowered. On touching the water it was found there was
no plug in her, and she was without thowle pins. While
they were waiting to supply these deficiencies, her
tackle became unhooked, and the boat drifted off from
the vessel with out the captain.

The men put their knives in for thowle pins, and the
passenger his German pipe for a like purpose and they
pulled out to sea to get round a point of rocks over
which the breakers were rolling heavily. When they had
weathered this point they pulled for the land, on
nearing which they called aloud for help; when they
were heard by the son of Lieut. McLean, of the Coast
Guard, who pointed out a place of safe landing.
Immediately the alarm was spread that a vessel had
struck on the Manacles. An attempt was then made to
pull out some of the Coast Guard boats without success,
from the dangerous character of the coast.

The passengers who had got on shore were taken by the
Coast Guard people in their attempt to put out to
assist the vessel in order to direct them where she lay
- those of the ships' crew who got on shore
positively refusing to lend even this assistance.
Unfortunately the boats could not reach the vessel, and
were compelled to return to the shore. They postponed
all further efforts till the following morning, when,
going further up the coast to a more favourable place
of embarkation, they reached the vessel, which was then
not above 200 yards from the shore. During the whole of
this time, the crew being, it is said, for the most
part intoxicated, not a single effort was made to save
the passengers by either the captain or crew. Some of
the passengers attempted of themselves to get the
cutter out, in doing so they stove her bottom, and lost
the boat.

The tide at the time the vessel struck was about
two-third ebb, and when she sank she filled with water,
but the decks were dry, and if assistance had been
rendered at this time all might have been safely
landed. Unfortunately, for the want of some directing
mind, this opportunity was lost, and on the returning
tide some portion of those on board got into the
rigging, the crew getting in the tops, while a large
number of the passengers took shelter in the long-boat
- the boat was floated out of the chocks and beaten
across the deck against the bulwarks until she was
knocked to pieces, and the whole of her living freight
either crushed or drowned.

The rising tide soon did it's work, washing the
unfortunate people off the decks and out of the lower
rigging, most of them having from cold and suffering
lost even the little energy necessary to make further
ascent up the rigging. In the morning the survivors
were taken off the wreck by the Coast Guard and landed
at Coverack, St.Keverne, when they met the most
hospitable reception from the inhabitants.

One of the passengers, Mr. E.C.Hele, of Shaldon, being
provided with a life belt, swam ashore in the night,
and he declares that had the boats been lowered when
she struck all might have been saved. Another of the
cabin passengers, Mr. Knuckey, lately returned from
Australia, had lost £500 of his earnings, but
succeeded in taking ashore 700 sovereigns in a belt.
Elizabeth Pearce and Mary Ann Penman, two of the
partied saved, left the service of Mrs. Hector, 2,
Albany-place. Another passenger among the fortunate
survivors, who left the dockyard to emigrate, as if
foreseeing the chance of calamity, asked for a
week's leave only, instead of his discharge from
the service, this would have expired to-morrow; he now
returns in time to retake his employment. Seventy-two
of the bodied of the unfortunate people were buried in
forty-four coffins on Sunday in St. Keverne churchyard
- relations being buried together.

Immediately the melancholy intelligence reached this
place it was telegraphed to the Admiralty and to the
Emigration Commissioners, upon which the former
directed Sir William Parker, the Commander-in-Chief, to
dispatch the Avon, second master Veitch in command, to
the scene of the disaster, and which returned to this
port on Tuesday-evening, bringing a number of the
passengers saved. The Emigration Commissioners also
directed Lieutenant Carew, R.N, agent at this port to
proceed at once to the place of the wreck, and that
gentleman left this port on Saturday evening. The Board
of Trade also dispatched an officer to institute an
inquiry into the circumstance of the wreck under the
provision of the new act which came into operation on
the inst., Commander Baldwin Wake, of the Coast Guard,
having made the preliminary enquiry as the act directs.

In the interim, the coroner of the district has been
performing the melancholy duty of holding inquisitions
on the bodied thrown up by the sea. The evidence at the
inquest showed that there was not a single palliating
circumstance in favour of the captain. The vessel
struck at ten p.m., and all were safe until daylight
the next morning when the captain forbade the
passengers from moving and in the case of a poor old
man who fell overboard from the rigging, he refused to
allow a party who volunteered to go to his assistance.
The greatest loss of life was occasioned by so many of
the passengers getting into the rigging that it broke
away, the parties falling into the sea, those not able
to swim or not strong enough to regain the vessel,
perishing.

The jury having heard all the evidence, in recording
their verdict, observed that they considered the
conduct of the whole of the crew, with the exception of
a seaman named Elder, most blameable, and expressed
their surprise that the ship was not supplied with a
signal gun nor blue lights, and recommended that a
light should be placed on the Manacles. Against the
Captain (Rawle) they returned a VERDICT OF
MANSLAUGHTER, and the coroner's warrant was at once
issued for his apprehension, and on which he has been
lodged in the Cornwall county gaol at Bodmin.

The passengers who have survived have received their
passage money back again, but in the instance where
survivors have lost relatives, the passage money of the
deceased has not been repaid.